‘I took a 20 per cent pay cut for Saaho’

Dressed in a blue and white shirt, Prabhas walked in to have a chat with us as his first film after the Baahubali franchise is all set to hit the screens later this month. “I listened to Saaho much before Baahubali and I had asked Sujeeth to wait till I finished the Baahubali franchise because I didn’t want to miss a story like this,” Prabhas begins with his effervescent smile that wouldn’t fade till the end of the interview. After listening to the script along with the producers, Prabhas decided to rope in Sabu Cyril as the art director for the film.

“The script required big names and it was I who spoke to Sabu sir to come on board for the film. We shot for a large chunk of portions in Hyderabad at the Ramoji Rao Film City. I think Sabu would have made at least 25 different sets in the span of one month while we were shooting for different portions,” he reveals. The actor plays an undercover cop in the film. “Though the budget isaround Rs 250 crore, Saaho has an author-backed content and unlike Baahubali, it doesn’t have a larger-than-life image for me,” he tells us.

The film will release across four languages (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam) to capitalise on Prabhas’ pan-Indian image post Baahubali. Will the trend continue with his upcoming films, he laughs, “Edhuku tension laam? Ithana languages la shoot panitu.” (Why to take stress by shooting in so many languages). I didn’t even get time to dub for my role in Tamil. I did my dubbing in Hindi and Telugu. So, I will think twice before committing myself to a multilingual from now on.” After giving five years of his time to Baahubali, the actor has given close to three years to Saaho. Ask him if it was difficult to shed the skin of his characters after each film, he denies it in a lighter vein with Baahubali as an example. “I am not a method actor and I easily move on from my characters after I complete the shoot of each of my films.

To be honest, at one point in time I couldn’t wait for Baahubali to end to move on to my next film. Even now, I have moved on from Saaho towards my next project. I have decided to do at least two films a year and I am also looking forward to working in a straight Tamil film soon,” he says. Prabhas’ remuneration made headlines after he committed to Saaho saying that he charged Rs 100 crore for the film. “Baahubali was a magnum opus and I agree if I had charged a whopping Rs 100 crore for that film. Saaho’s budget isn’t as big as Baahubali. Moreover, it is my friend, who is producing this film. I took a pay cut of 20 per cent for the film,” he opens up. It was Prabhas’ wedding that was one of the few other things apart from his remuneration and Saaho. He says, “I haven’t made any wedding plans as of now. Though I don’t know who the girl is, I think I will have a love marriage and not an arranged one,” he concludes.